Abebe Aragawi is shaping up to be the Morgan Uceny of 2012. Last week she won in a fast 3:56 in Rome, yesterday she ran a smart, savvy race to win in 4:02. The sample size is very small, but so far she has shown the versatility to make her a favorite the rest of the summer. As for the real Uceny, she finished 6th in 4:05. She didn’t really get going last year until after the U.S. championships, so I wouldn’t count her out yet.

There was good news and bad news for Lolo Jones. The good, she ran a season best time of 12.75 and beat last year’s silver medalist Danielle Carruthers. The bad, the extraordinarily deep American 100 hurdles field, got even deeper with the emergence of Kristi Castlin. After a stellar indoor season, Castlin finished 2nd yesterday in 12.56. Sally Pearson’s dominance would be boring if she wasn’t so fun to watch.

Is Kenenisa Bekele improving or flat lining? He ran his fastest time of the season, 13:00.54, but finished only 5th. Worse than that, he lost to his younger brother and everyone knows how awful that is. Oslo was his fourth Diamond League race of the season and he has shown steady improvement, but has yet to have the breakthrough race that truly signals his return.

If you are watching the NCAA meet for runners that will have an impact at the US Olympic Trials, keep your eye on Kimberlyn Duncan, English Gardner and Octavious Freemon in the women’s 100, Tony McQuay and Mike Berry in the men’s 400 and Harry Adams and Maurice Mitchell in the men’s 100.

Make sure to check out our most recent podcast with Joe Battaglia of NBC Olympics. Joe gives a great preview of the Prefontaine Classic and the Rome Golden Gala and also comments on the hype surrounding Lolo Jones, Allyson Felix’s double and the Kenyan Olympic selection process.

Speaking of Joe Battaglia, he introduces the 14 men running in the Kenyan Olympic 10,000 Trials at Hayward Field on Friday night, and previews today’s meet in Rome.

Dai Greene is out of the 400 hurdles in Rome with an illness. Apparently, policing all of track and field can get pretty taxing.

Add “Visa issues” to the list of items that ail track and field. Cuban hurdle superstar Dayron Roblesmay be out of the Prefontaine Classic due to a delay in obtaining his Visa.

TYSON GAY SIGHTINING TYSON GAY SIGHTING. He only runs about 30 meters on a high school track, but there is a real starter’s pistol and he is using blocks. In all seriousness, there is a chance that he will debut this weekend on his home track in Clermont.

For some reason, there was a large amount of coverage of Olympic track and field athletes yesterday. Still trying to figure out why. In the meantime, here is The Morning Run, 99 days before the London Olympics kick off!

Bershawn Jackson takes aim at Britain’s Dai Greene. I was curious when, and if, someone on the US team would stick up for Lashawn Merritt after Greene called Merritt a cheat. Jackson answered that emphatically and then some.

Video previews of the men’s and women’s races for Sunday’s London Marathon by race director David Bedford.

Emmanuel Mutaiwas diagnosed with typhoid during his preparations for the London Marathon. Naturally, Jason and I both picked him for a top 3 finish.

Jason and Kevin discuss cross country and road races results from the weekend, debate the proper way for a distance runner to announce their college decision and explain why it is a bad idea to throw something at Chris Solinsky.